Exploring the connections between two iconic dyes and the story of William Gatty and his home; Elmfield Hall in Accrington.
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A millennium ‘guaranteed wax’ calendar for the year 2000 from the ABC Wax company, which has links to Greater Manchester to this day. The company began with a printworks which opened in Hyde in the early 19th century. In 1908 they began to produce the exact kind of fabric we see here – imitation batik […]
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These panels from Indonesia or Borneo show the fourteen stages of the batik method required to make this relatively simple design of a beetle using blue and brown dyes. A more detailed design and wider range of colours would add many more steps to the process and require even more patience and skill to create. […]
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The elaborate pattern and vibrant colours of this Malaysian batik sarong would have required a great deal of skill to create and the finished garment would have been a status symbol for the wearer. The complex design features peacocks as well as other birds, butterflies and a variety of floral motifs. At least six different […]
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This intricately patterned sarong from Indonesia is a beautiful example of the batik method. The complex design features birds, spiders, beetles and other insects worked in shades of deep blue and brown. Each colour would require a new layer of wax to be laid over the relevant sections of fabric, dyed, then washed free of […]
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This commercial sample was designed and manufactured in Lancashire using industrial printing processes to closely imitate the effect of a traditional, hand worked batik or wax resist dyeing. The design features a simple colour palette with geometric patterns as the backdrop for large and graphic fish motifs. Resist-dyeing is an ancient process and flourished in […]
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This fabric was designed and manufactured in Lancashire using industrial printing processes to closely imitate the effect of traditional, hand worked batik or wax resist dyeing so that it could be sold on the African export market. This example is particularly interesting as it was manufactured to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II […]
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This commercial sample was designed and manufactured in Lancashire using industrial printing processes to closely imitate the effect of a traditional, hand worked batik or wax resist dyeing. It was produced by the Manchester based firm Edwards, Cunliffe & Co Ltd c.1950-60 and was intended for the African export market. A manufacturer’s label still attached […]
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This adire cloth was produced in Ibadan, Nigeria, and uses cassava starch paste as a resist to create the pattern using indigo dye. The technique is similar to other resist techniques such as batik, but using cassava starch instead of wax. This sample is now held in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection but was originally collected […]
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A commercial sample of a furnishing weight cotton chintz with an Art Nouveau style pattern designed by Samuel Rowe and printed by Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd. The stylised, intricate and sinuous forms of the flowers in this design are typical of the evolving styles at the end of the 19th century, when Arts & Crafts […]
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This sample of glazed cotton cretonne furnishing fabric was designed by Lewis Foreman Day (b.1845 d.1910). Day was an influential designer, critic and artist who combined the design principles of the Arts & Crafts Movement with industrial production methods. From the 1870s to his death in 1910 he was Artistic Director of the printing firm […]
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Lightweight cotton furnishing fabric called ‘Salangore’, designed by Thomas Wardle for Liberty. The Victoria & Albert Museum has a sample of this design in blue, printed onto tussah silk hand-woven in India, which was exhibited in the British India Pavilion of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878. One of six Indian-inspired patterns at the exhibition, […]
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